It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Tomorrow is December 1 and I for one am excited that it is finally here. This has always been my favorite time of the year and seeing it through the eyes of 37 little Preschoolers each day makes it all that much more special. I don't know who is more excited, the teacher or the kids. My classroom is all decked out in holiday flair. I always put up a child size tree that the kids are allowed to decorate and undecorate as many times as they want. I figure that the kids are usually only allowed to view the tree from a distance with a no touch policy so our tree lets them touch all they want. I also have a fireplace up on the wall where the children can sit and "warm" themselves while reading a good Christmas tale. I was explaining all the new activities to the children the other day and I was talking about the fireplace as if it were real. One of my little boys said, "You know, Mrs. Damman, that fireplace is fake." What would I do without my children?

Anyway things look a lot like Christmas at school and at home. The tree is up and looking so fine this year. I absolutely hated this new tree last year, but as I was assembling it this year, I realized that I never pulled the branches apart last year. No wonder it had so many bare spots!
This year it looks so much better. Here are a few of the ornaments that I am highlighting this year. Look at my sweet little girls on this one! One of my students gave me this ornament when I was her Preschool teacher years ago. Courtney and Becky (the student) became very close friends in High School, but that is neither here nor there. I always put this ornament up first and give it a prominent, front spot on the tree. It brings back such happy memories for me.

Each of my girls made these handprint ornaments in Preschool. I think Courtney was almost four when she made this one. Look how nicely she wrote her name.

And here is Alissa's handprint from Preschool. I think she was just turning three, but the name sure is good for that age, so maybe I am off on that, but then, Alissa was always ahead of her age. I think it had something to do with how long she spent in utero! I also cannot figure out why her fingers look so short and fat. I don't remember her having fingers like this!

My favorite ornament is one with Alissa's picture on it. I featured it on my blog last year. Anyway she wrote her name like this "Assila" on that ornament. I never, ever want anything to happen to that ornament, it is so precious to me. I didn't keep a lot of things from when my girls were young, so I value these treasures so much.

John brought this ornament into our marriage. He didn't bring much as far as material things go, but he did bring this. We always put this ornament in front of a little light. It is Catholic because of the halo around Mary's head, so it brings a bit of his former religion into our home.

We always take time to remember my dad at this time of the year. Actually we remember him at all times of the year but especially at Christmas. This is an ornament with his name on it which has a important spot on our tree. We also have some homemade Santa magnets and some walnut Santas that he made, but I did not photograph them.

Our tree is full of happy, precious memories which is what a tree is all about, I think.

Here is a peek at my village. It is always fun to put the village up and it keeps getting bigger every year.

Here is the theater. And...

In all the hustle and bustle of the season, let us not forget the real reason for the season. I can assure you that if you ask any of my little ones, they will tell you that Jesus is what Christmas is all about!

Another Thanksgiving is in the history books or in this case on the blog

We had a lovely Thanksgiving feast at Vikki's house today. She and her brother Sean did all the cooking and everything was very tasty indeed. It was just me, John, and my mom since our girls were off in other states eating turkey with out laws and then Kev, Mal, Vikki's mom, Sue and her significant other, Mr. Winters, her Aunt Ruth Ann and her significant other, Todd. Lots of significant others in this party-I guess John and I were the only married ones there today, huh!
Sometimes I worry about the dynamics of a new gathering like that with people we haven't met yet, but there was no need to stress even one bit. The men sat and ate in the living room while watching football and the ladies enjoyed our meal in the dining room and the conversations were easy and painless. Vikki comes from nice people.
Now I am wrapping a few presents and enjoying the tree and the village. My work here is almost done for Christmas. John is going to work tomorrow since he doesn't have vacation time yet, but I am also heading over to school for a bit, so all is good with that. He plans on doing the outside lights on Saturday so hoping that goes well and all the lights light.
Off to watch the Apprentice now, see who is fired this week.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

No photos today, just some thoughts that I want to document so I can look back and remember them.
Today was the first really cold, blustery day that we have experienced this fall after our wonderfully warm weather up until now. There were a few snowflakes flying, but it all turned to rain by afternoon.
I put up the village last night. I reread past blogs and realized I was behind on my decorating, so without delay I jumped into it and finished not only the village, but wrapped up my pictures and some boxes to use for decorations, too. I really thought I wanted a real tree this year, but that idea is quickly leaving me because I realize with a real tree I can not put it up in the next day or two or it will be needleless by Christmas. I also remember vividly the trouble John and I always had putting that frickin' tree in the stand. I don't think that would have changed since I don't think anyone has invented a stand that loads the tree itself yet. Not to mention the needles which we would be picking up until next summer and really, does the smell ever really linger as much as we think it should? No, I am going downstairs to get the fake tree up as soon as I am done with this post. Done, done, and done.
I went out to lunch with Lynne today. We went to Upper Crust on a long overdue birthday lunch. Enjoyed good food and good conversation. It is always good to visit with Lynne. I appreciate her positive outlook on life. I am still confused about the bill, but as long as Lynne felt it was fair, I am fine with it. I hope we can get together soon again.
We will head over to Vikki's tomorrow for Thanksgiving. I am glad that I do not have to cook and I am glad that no one is here this year. It is going to be a nice, productive few days. I made two chocolate chip/pumpkin pies for Vikki's. I am looking forward to meeting her family and spending some time with them. Courtney, Paul, and Tiz will head to Iowa tomorrow and Alissa and Nathan will head to Bloomington later today. I wish them all good, safe travels and an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I will miss being together, but like I said, I am looking forward to a relaxing few days and we did have our Thanksgiving last weekend.
Well, I hear a tree calling me from the basement so I better go see what it wants.
Later...

Early Thanksgiving dinner in Oshkosh

We just returned from an early Thanksgiving celebration in Oshkosh. Courtney was part of a Homemade Holiday craft fair at Becket's and that is how this whole idea got started. I asked her is she would like me to put in a turkey for all of us to enjoy after her day of selling and she agreed to it. Alissa and Nathan joined us, too, even though Alissa has a real distaste for the whole Thanksgiving holiday. Courtney and Paul bought the bird, Alissa and Nathan brought homemade buns, truffles, and wine, while John and I supplied the rest of the meal.
We started out with a nice lunch at Becket's with Tizita and Paul. Tiz was dressed in one of her beautiful Christmas dresses and here is the happy face that greeted us so often this weekend. After lunch we looked around and shopped at the craft show. There were so many lovely things including some very beautiful crocheted hats. Alissa and Nathan arrived and I finally got the bird in the oven. Tiz and I were having such a grand time at the craft fair that I almost forgot about getting that turkey in the oven.
Anyway, the bird cooked all afternoon filling the house with that wonderful turkey smell. Alissa did the honors of carving as she always does.

We sat down to a table of yummy food and some really good wine. Toasts were made and prayers of thanks were sung.

We were awakened this morning by the most wonderful sound when Tiz comes into our bedroom calling "Grandma and Grandpa" and giving us hugs. Before church we had cereal and truffles while sitting on the kitchen floor.

So, so much to be thankful for...

We are truly blessed.

You are my Sunshine, my Little Sunshine

Even though there were gray skies, cold temps, and rainy showers outside our home was filled with sunshine this weekend because our little sunshine girl spent a nice, long weekend with us and there was not a gray, cold, rainy moment around here. Courtney brought Tizita to Watertown on Friday morning so mama could work on some of her crocheting business which has skyrocketed as of late. Courtney dropped Tiz off and headed back to Oshkosh. Of course, Tizita wanted to mix up one of her concoctions immediately, so we set to work on that. She now has her own stash of spices and other goodies that she can use whenever she feels the urge to "cook" here at our house. We left the mixture to chill for a few hours while we...

shopped at Walmart, the Dollar Tree, and St. Vinney's. Of course, we found some goodies at all three stores. Tiz is turning into a wonderful little shopper just like her Grandma. We had a great lunch at McDonald's with Gigi. Tiz was making friends and having a ball playing on the play structure until a little boy threw up all over inside of the structure. Luckily, Tiz was able to manuever her way down without stepping on the pile of puke. We packed up and headed home, our trip cut a bit short by the puke, but still a fun adventure.

Once home again, Tiz painted a piggy bank that she bought at the Dollar Tree. It is beautiful and she is keeping right here in our kitchen so we can fill it up for her next shopping trip here in Watertown.

While baking some chocolate chip cookies, we took a break to watch some TV and eat a few of the chocolate chips. Tiz seems to have developed a love for all things chocolate from her Grandma, too.

We checked on the chilling concoction mixed up earlier and decided it was time to bake it. Here is the finished product with some candy decorations to boot. Grandpa tried some when he came home because he thought it was an actual sweet treat, but upon the first bit, he realized it wasn't quite what he expected. When Tiz asked him how it was, he said, "Pretty good," to which she repied, "why only pretty good?" Too funny!

She and Gigi enjoyed some quiet together time. Sorry, I can't get the picture turned, but you get the idea of how much this little girl loves her Gigi.

On Friday afternoon we did take some time to go outside in between rain showers. Tiz helped clean up the garden,

Took a nice swing ride,

And helped me rake a few leaves.

Then it was back inside to wait for Grandpa and enjoy our new Winnie the Pooh light from St. Vinney's. When grandpa arrived we had pizza for supper and watched The Little Mermaid and Curious George movies before all three of us fell asleep. What a great day!

On Saturday, we woke up and enjoyed our chocolate chip cookies for breakfast, yep, only at Grandma's! We even ate them sitting on my bed watching some quality cartoons.

Tiz put on her new outfit for our visit to see John's dad in the nursing home and then to spend some time with Alissa and Nathan on Saturday afternoon.

We had a lovely time in Milwaukee on our visits. We were planning on taking Tizita home to Oshkosh, but due to a traffic accident and backup on our route we headed back to Watertown for one more night. Turned out to be quite a bad accident and other business so glad we did not have to wait in that for half our night. Tiz played with Grandpa a lot on Saturday night. She made him some supper, they dressed mimis, and they played Candyland. After all that playing we called it a night and headed to bed.

On Sunday morning we played trains before heading to church. We will be returning our little ray of sunshine this afternoon! I think she will have left enough sun behind to keep us happy all week.

Celebrating Mom's 82nd Birthday in Oshkosh

We just got back from Oshkosh where we celebrated my mom's 82nd birthday. This is the third year in a row that we have celebrated in Oshkosh and each year seems to keep getting better and better.
John, mom, and I arrived nice and early on Saturday morning. Shortly after we arrived, Kev and Vikki pulled in after eating a greasy breakfast in Rosendale. Alissa and Nathan got there after lunch at which point the party could begin. Kev and John walked to Jansen's to watch the Badgers, Vikki and I joined them for a few beers and to catch the Badger victory. Once we got back to Courtney and Paul's we started the party.

We opened the goody box and the gifts and then we had cakes, two of them. They were very yummy.

John, mom, Kev, Vikki, Tiz, and I were staying at the City Center Hotel. We were all a bit nervous about what we would find there since the reviews were all negative, but we decided to take a chance and go for it. Here is Tiz enjoying the slot machine in the bar at the hotel. This reminds me of the old days at the Firehouse restaurant on Saturday nights with Mal and Kev. I spend endless hours on the video machines with Mal. What goes around comes around, I guess. This time it was Kev putting the money in the machine and showing her how to use it.

We walked over to Becket's Restaurant from the hotel. It was a beautiful November day and we walked along the Fox River. We stopped to take a family photo.

I also took this family photo of our Oshkosh hosts, the Van Aukens.

Alissa and Nathan at the Restaurant.

John and I at the Restaurant. Our table overlooked the Fox River. It was a beautiful spot to spend mom's birthday.

Kev treated us all to two bottles of wine which I thoroughly enjoyed. I decided right then and there that I wanted to go out for a few more wines after I got Tiz to sleep in the hotel room which by the way turned out to be a wonderful hotel. Those reviews were way off. We have good things to say about our stay at the City Center, but I digress.

I did indeed get to go out after Tiz was asleep, mom stayed with her at the hotel while the rest of us enjoyed a night out on the town. Many wines later, we returned to the hotel and turned our clocks back to give us a much needed extra hour of sleep.

Tiz was up bright and early as were we. We headed back over to Courtney and Paul's and then went to church. After church we had a nice lunch and our weekend came to an end. but not before Tiz and I had a romp in the leaves:

By next year we hope to be celebrating mom's 83rd birthday in Bloomington! Exciting times ahead for Alissa and Nathan!